Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met Serbian President Boris Tadic and other Serbian officials in Belgrade on Wednesday, saying he presented the possibilities which the South Stream gas pipeline project offered Serbia. Tadic said Putin assured him that the project would be implemented in the coming years as planned.
Putin told a joint news conference that delegations of the two countries discussed energy, including Serbia's section of South Stream and the project's potentials.
During the presentation of the project in Belgrade, it was said construction would begin in 2013 and that the pipeline would become operational in December 2015. Marcel Kramer, the managing director of the South Stream company, said a feasibility study would be completed by August, when the exact route of the pipeline will be known, adding that the design of the project would be completed by next year.
Putin said the list of Russian-Serbian economic projects was constantly expanding and that he expected Serbian construction companies to participate in the preparation of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 football championships.
Putin said Russian companies would help build railroads in Serbia and that Russia was interested in Serbian construction companies' experience in the tourism sector.
Tadic said it was agreed that part of Russia's tied credit to Serbia, which amounts to US$ 800 million, should be implemented via projects for railways and rail cargo transport.
Tadic said it was Serbia's strategic commitment to become a member of the European Union and that it was also strategically interested in cooperating with Russia, including in the energy sector. He said he could not see how the EU could deal with its energy requirements without a partnership with Russia, voicing confidence that Serbia would be part of the arrangement.
Speaking of Serbia's aspiration to join the EU, Putin told the press this did not worry his country at all, saying Russia would closely follow the process with its Serbian partners and that they would work together so this European integration process did not undermine the development of Russian-Serbian relations.
Putin and Tadic reiterated their joint positions and Russia's support for Serbia's refusal to recognise Kosovo's independence. Tadic reiterated that Serbia would not recognise Kosovo either explicitly or implicitly.
Delegations of the two countries' governments signed several agreements in tourism, science cooperation and international road traffic.
Putin also visited the Serbian parliament, meeting Speaker Slavica Djukic Dejanovic and the presidents of the parliamentary parties' groups.
